New Zealand retained the Bledisloe Cup and all but secured the Tri-Nations trophy with a 20-10 victory over Australia at Lancaster Park yesterday.
The victory, courtesy of converted tries by fullback Mils Muliaina and center Conrad Smith and two penalties from flyhalf Daniel Carter, was also the All Blacks’ ninth successive win against the Wallabies.
Fullback Kurtley Beale scored an opportunist try, while flyhalf Matt Giteau added a conversion and a penalty for the Wallabies, who have now matched their worst losing streak against New Zealand. They also lost nine tests from 1936 to 1947.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The All Blacks have 19 points in the Tri-Nations and need just one more point in their remaining two games against South Africa on Aug. 21 and Australia on Sept. 11 to be certain of sealing a fifth title in six years.
Australia stayed on four points after three matches, with South Africa, yet to register a point, bottom of the standings.
“From our point of view its about the Bledisloe Cup,” All Blacks coach Graham Henry told reporters. “It’s a big trophy for New Zealand rugby and the boys value it highly. They’re delighted. It was a big Test match to secure that Cup and it was a major plus.”
The match was a classic “game of two halves,” with both sides playing at a frenetic pace and sending the ball wide in sweeping movements in the first spell, though the second half degenerated into a dour defensive struggle.
Australia dominated possession, but their one-dimensional game plan of hammering away at New Zealand’s defensive line was continually thwarted.
The All Blacks, meanwhile, have played a scintillating style in this year’s Tri-Nations, but they failed to execute as well as they had in their previous three matches, dropping the ball at crucial times when they were on the attack.
“It was a better effort from us,” Wallabies coach Robbie Deans said. “We produced a lot more position and possession, but the All Blacks were successful in denying us momentum which would have been helpful converting that possession into points.”
All three tries came in the first 15 minutes, with the All Blacks able to turn defense into attack and open the scoring when Joe Rokocoko put Muliaina clear with 25m to run down the left hand touchline. Carter converted for a 7-0 lead.
Australia, however, responded almost immediately when an All Blacks back-line movement broke down and Beale scooted away. Giteau converted to level the scores.
Smith grabbed the All Blacks’ second try after the home side again used wide passes to put the outside players into space and Carter added the sideline conversion.
Giteau and Carter then traded penalties, and while the All Blacks spent the final few minutes of the half attacking the Wallabies line, they were unable to add to their advantage and went into the break with a 17-10 lead.
The second half, however, failed to match the pace of the first and Carter finally broke the deadlock after the break when he slotted his second penalty with 10 minutes remaining to give the All Blacks some breathing room.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier